A 21-year-old baby-sitter who was hired through a care-giving website was sentenced to serve 10 years in state prison after pleading no contest to molesting two Glendale brothers during an eight-month period.

When “Freakonomics” came out in 2005, I figured it was a watershed moment in public discourse.
At last, I thought, someone with a big, loud platform was casting light on an all-too-common practice in which scientists and science journalists...